A secretive underground FEMA base where congressional leaders hid following the 9/11 attacks is getting an upgrade.
But what exactly are workers doing at Mount Weather? Well, that’s classified ‒ and the contractors who are doing the work have top secret security clearances.
Buried in the Blue Ridge Mountains 64 miles west of Washington, D.C., Mount Weather is part of a network of underground facilities scattered across the United States designed to protect federal leaders during a crisis. It takes less than 30 minutes by helicopter to reach Mount Weather from Capitol Hill.
“The breadth and depth of capabilities offered by Mount Weather make it a unique facility,” FEMA said in a rare 2009 fact sheet about the site. “The (facility) supports a variety of disaster response and continuity missions, mostly classified.”
The “continuity of government” sites also include Colorado’s Cheyenne Mountain bunker, with buildings made from battleship steel sitting atop giant springs to help them weather a nuclear attack. The public generally cannot visit Mount Weather’s underground facility, but a USA TODAY reporter was permitted to tour Cheyenne Mountain in 2015.
Mount Weather, which is also known as the High Point Special Facility, has both above- and below-ground facilities as part of its 564-acre site, and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visited the complex in early April, posing for photos outside with the complex’s fulltime fire department and armed FEMA security guards.